Anime Talk: Otaku!

OTAKU is a Japanese word used for people who are obsessed, especially anime, manga or video games. But many of us know that this word is related to anime. Otaku is extremely negative in meaning as it is used to refer to someone who stays at home all the time. Usually an otaku person has nothing better to do with their life so they pass the time by watching anime, reading mangas, playing videogames, surfing the internet (otaku is also used to refer to a nerd/hacker/programmer).

In the Western culture, people confuse otaku to be something positive like “Guru”. If you think about it, it’s not really good to be called a guru if it means you are a total loser who can’t socialize with other people except through the Internet. Yes, LOSERS. Others may think that we are losers, but we, otaku know that in ourselves that being totally addicted to anime is our life, our pleasure, our recreation, and entertainment in life. All I want to say for those people that think that otakus suck is, “Do what you want, its a free country. -Vic Sotto/Bossing.” (For all people out there that watched Eat Bulaga in Channel 7, I know you can relate. Hahaha =)

In Japan the word Otaku is a label that is quite bad. Most Japanese people would not want to be considered an otaku.
In America, however, they have morphed the word as we always do to our own meaning. There is nothing wrong with this. Over in America it means “to be a big fan of”, and really doesn’t have a bad meaning, as it would in Japan. As such, you wouldn’t want to go to Japan and start saying how much of an Otaku you are. In America this is fine, and probably in Canada as well. However, alot of people here seem to forget that they are saying what the Japanese interpret it as.

Otaku has multiple meanings. Casual anime fans use this word in the context of being a well established fan who knows much about anime and manga. Japanese see this term as derogitory which represents a person who is a lifeless nerd. Wapanese see this as derogitory given their strong belief that because they watched some anime that all the sudden they are japanese. Wapanese is the term used to describe a person of non-japanese descent (usually white, however some others are lumped in there as well) who is incredibly obsessed with Japanese things.

If you’re an Otaku then you know anime. BTW, what is Anime ? ANIME is a form of animation orginating in Japan. Common elements in characters include large, shiny eyes, often spiky or unusually colored hair, long legs, etc. Anime is being popular nowadays and even before I guess. They are highly addictive for me, and also for those otakus. Yes, they are fictional characters. But, because we love them, we are interested about them. They keep us alive, for US. I think many anime-addicts are thinking that ANIME should be a real thing in this world. ^^

We all know that Anime really came from Japan and we, Filipinos, are a big fan of them. We really really love them. We don’t know why, we don’t know how, its just because they are anime. Words can’t expressed our feelings for loving such fictional and cute characters of anime. Anime has different kinds of stories like comedy, actions, horror (Yes, ANIME has HORROR.) and especially the romance. Girls really like anime that has a romance type of genre, I guess. Maybe most of all but if you’re an otaku, I bet you all love them no matter what kind of genre was it. But we can always say that every person has his/her own FAVORITE.